Greenwashing: Difference between revisions
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'''{{Wplink|Greenwashing}}''' is a form of advertising or marketing that deceptively uses social and environmental public relations (PR) in order to persuade the public that a company's products, goals, or policies are environmentally-friendly. Companies that intentionally adopt greenwashing strategies often do so to distance themselves from their environmental lapses or those of their suppliers. While the term itself was coined in a 1986 essay about the hotel industry's "save the towel" movement,<ref>{{Cite web |first=Jim |last=Motavalli |title=A History of Greenwashing: How Dirty Towels Impacted the Green Movement |url=https://www.aol.com/2011-02-12-the-history-of-greenwashing-how-dirty-towels-impacted-the-green.html |website=AOL |date=12 Feb 2011 |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822081337/https://www.aol.com/2011-02-12-the-history-of-greenwashing-how-dirty-towels-impacted-the-green.html |archive-date=22 Aug 2024}}</ref> the practice has been traced back to the 1950s with the "keep America beautiful" campaign that places the burden of reducing and recycling litter onto the consumer and shifts the focus away from corporate responsibility.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Business-Managed Environment — Front Groups — Keep America Beautiful |url=https://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/fronts/KAB.html |website=herinst.org |date=2009 |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225224843/https://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/fronts/KAB.html |archive-date=25 Feb 2012}}</ref | '''{{Wplink|Greenwashing}}''' is a form of advertising or marketing that deceptively uses social and environmental public relations (PR) in order to persuade the public, investors, and consumers that a company's products, goals, or policies are environmentally-friendly. Companies that intentionally adopt greenwashing strategies often do so to distance themselves from their environmental lapses or those of their suppliers. <blockquote>“Their [Shell's] glitzy advertisements can no longer conceal their climate criminal behaviour – polluting the planet, raking in record profits, and sanitising their own image to continue the climate-wrecking cycle.” — former Green Party MP, United Kingdom, Caroline Lucas<ref name=":1" /></blockquote> | ||
== History of the Term == | |||
While the term itself was coined in a 1986 essay about the hotel industry's "save the towel" movement,<ref>{{Cite web |first=Jim |last=Motavalli |title=A History of Greenwashing: How Dirty Towels Impacted the Green Movement |url=https://www.aol.com/2011-02-12-the-history-of-greenwashing-how-dirty-towels-impacted-the-green.html |website=AOL |date=12 Feb 2011 |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822081337/https://www.aol.com/2011-02-12-the-history-of-greenwashing-how-dirty-towels-impacted-the-green.html |archive-date=22 Aug 2024}}</ref> the practice has been traced back to the 1950s with the "keep America beautiful" campaign that places the burden of reducing and recycling litter onto the consumer and shifts the focus away from corporate responsibility.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Business-Managed Environment — Front Groups — Keep America Beautiful |url=https://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/fronts/KAB.html |website=herinst.org |date=2009 |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225224843/https://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/fronts/KAB.html |archive-date=25 Feb 2012}}</ref> | |||
==Notable examples== | ==Notable examples== | ||